For more than 150 years, sun dried tomatoes have been used in preparing salads, soups, pasta, casserole and other Italian and American cuisine. Dried tomatoes, like other dried fruits and vegetables, have several benefits over their fresh counterparts. Bulk dried vegetables can be shipped and stored without special handling required for fresh vegetables. Also, dried vegetables can be stored without the special refrigeration that is necessary for fresh vegetables. Dried vegetables also have extended useful lives.
Traditional methods of drying tomatoes in addition to sun drying include the use of ovens and other heating or dehydrating equipment. Typically, tomatoes are dehydrated with a moisture content of less than 4%. An example of a dehydrating process is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,035,909 to Juan M. Lomelin, et al. The process of dehydrating tomatoes often requires expensive machinery and monitoring equipment to ensure that the tomatoes are properly dried without contamination of the tomatoes. These measures attempt to achieve the proper moisture content without destroying the flavor and taste of the tomatoes.
Dehydration techniques generally require the addition of additives and preservatives for the dried tomatoes to retain the flavor, vitamin and mineral content of fresh tomatoes. Dehydrated tomatoes are typically provided in granulated powder form. Dehydrated tomatoes must therefore be reconstituted, i.e., boiled in water for a period of time, before the reconstituted tomatoes can be used in food preparation. U.S. Pat. No. 4,031,266 to William A. Mitchell, et al. provides examples of reconstitutable tomato compositions.
Past approaches to produce chopped dried tomatoes on a commercial scale have not been successful. The elasticity of dried tomatoes is incompatible with prior art chopping machines. Prior art chopping machines pulverize dried tomatoes resulting in either granulated powder tomatoes much like the dehydrated tomatoes discussed above and/or clogging of the chopping machine which often burned out the associated motor. U.S. Pat. No. 3,311,478 to C. W. Robarge shows food processing equipment which may be satisfactorily modified for use with the present invention.
Therefore, a need has arisen for an effective and economical process to produce chopped dried tomatoes which can be used for culinary purposes without the use of expensive dehydration equipment and extended reconstitution procedures.